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Welcome to the Hunter Valley Model Marine Club Inc. Website.

Radio controlled boats are fun and exciting and there are always plenty of thrills and spills that occur during racing.  There are many different classes of racing and these are defined in the rules governed by the Australian Model Power Boat Association.

There are three basic types of hull configuration, these being:

The boat hulls may be constructed of any material, however the usual materials are plywood and fibreglass and in some cases may be ABS, carbon fibre or kevlar.

Hulls can be powered by either electric, nitro or petrol engines and are placed in classes according to the capacity of the engine or batteries used. These classes are:

Typically classes are designated using the Engine Class followed by the Hull type, e.g. a mono with a 7.5cc engine would be known as a ‘B Mono’ and a hydro with 2 5S Lipo batteries would be known as an ‘EC Hydro’. There are also some specialty boats that are run, such as;

Typically a model boat has two remotely controlled functions, throttle and steering but some race boats also have a third function for onboard mixture control or trim control. Some people use stick type remote control handsets, but most boaters in use the wheel type of controller.

Our Model Boats are run on a 300m course and all boats travel in a clockwise direction. The course is defined by six buoys (three at each end) however some national and larger events will have 10 buoys (five at each end). All boats must enter the course at Buoy 1 and must leave the course at Buoy 6 to avoid collisions. For safety, no boats are permitted to be on the water if rescue is occurring.

A typical oval heat race will have up to 6 competitors. All competitors when called have 2 minutes to start their boats and circulate around the course followed by a 30 second mill time to line up for the start. At the completion of mill time, competitors then try to complete 5 laps in the fastest possible time and hope to secure first place. Some of the quicker boats are capable of speeds of up to 160kph and some can complete 5 laps (1.5kms) in less than 1 minute.

At our club race days there are many experienced members that can assist with information relating to building, running and maintaining model boats.